How do you keep things at the allotment

[jackie j]

I have a shed and keep all my bits in there, but thats not what I mean, When you are working on the plot with small things where do you put them in between. I have recently lost a pair of seateurs cant find them anywhere and this week I have lost a pair of herb scissors my MIL bought me. I must have left them out. I think I had better use a bucket or something and put things in there whilst I am working.

[shirlthegirl43]

I don't have a lottie, just my garden. My secateurs are usually to be found hanging on a stubby branch in the tree closest to where I last used them Sometimes I confuse myself and remember to put them in the drawer in the greenhouse bench. Most stuff gets bunged in my back pocket though

[jackie j]

I have my suspisions I have a feeling anything I leave out gets taken and I think I know by whom.

[SarzWix]

I'm the same as you jackie, I just put stuff down wherever I am and then have to hunt high and low for them later It's not too bad in spring and autumn because I usually have a jacket or body-warmer on with pockets in.

[jackie j]

I have a good check before I lock the shed and as I walk through the plot I look to see if I have left anything out, I see the big things like fork rake etc ( yes I have had to unlock the shed to put them away ) but the little things I seem to forget unless I leave them on the path to trip over on my way out. Which reminds me I have left the rose off the watering can in a seed tray with some plants waiting to go in the ground. Wonder if its still there in the morning lol

[zazen999]

I have a basket for the bike, which on the rare occasion that I drive [on the way back from somewhere or dropping heavy stuff off], I take with me in the car. Everything goes in this and it sits in the middle of the lottie, along with my drink - which I sup from when one job finishes and before another begins, so everything gets chucked in the basket.

However, I have left stuff out occasionally and nothing has been nicked thus far.

[Two_Sheds]

I've recently found my lost secateurs in the Dalek - I had obviously just put them down in a bendy bucket, thinking to put them away properly, but didn't ... then filled the bucket up with weeds, and tipped the whole lot in the Dalek.

[dexterdoglancashire]

Hiya jackie - I have a bright pink trug in which I put my weeds, but also my tools, as I have a silly habit of forgetting them and leaving them outside. Only trouble is, most of my tools have green handles! I must get round to painting them bright red or something so I can see them before they go into the compost bin!

[Flummery]

I take my wheelbarrow to the lottie. The lottie is small and very close to home so no need (or room!) for a shed. If I'm taking more than a trowel or a spade I take the barrow. Then I can lob things in - trowel, empty pots, weeds for the chooks (oh heck, now you know I have weeds on my lottie!)

[NOG]

I have a leather holster for my secs and it clips on a belt or Pocket....I have now trained myself to reholster after use.

Due to the weeds and other rubbish in my plots I always have a bucket with me and it has a £land tidy that is tied round it. So all my hand tools and sting are attached to the bucket.

But I still loose things.

[Lilarwen]

We have use of a community air-raid shelter to store tools. It was often broken into, but now the council have given up replacing the lock, the theives have stopped going in there! Likewise with sheds etc, those who lock them tend to discover they have been broken into whilst those who don't bother to put a lock on are left untouched. A shed was a little out of our price range so we brought a 'seat box' -which turned out to be a plastic box to store deck chairs or seat covers rather than the box you can sit on that we had antisipated! But it does the job, there is enough space to store most of our tools lying downn and the rake which is too long we hide in amoungst the raspberries! For smaller items - hose pipe connectors, twine, etc we brought a cheap plastic toy box, with lid, and pop everything small enough to lose into it...when working on an area, I take the box with me and then throw it all back in at the end of my time, pop the lid on and throw the whole thing into the seat box. My other secret for keeping the tools and bits n' bobs tidied up is my children! Nothing like a little bribery or competiton to get my younger children to run down the rows to find anything I've been daft enough to put down and forget!

[quark1]

If you're likely to miss stuff as perhaps you leave them down somewhere and get distracted and diverted elsewhere how about making them more visisble?

This could be done by attaching some bright and luridy colourful tape to handles - to use either to bind the handle or perhaps to leave a useful loop from which to hang. electricians tape is a possible - that bright yellow stuff?

Then when leaving the lottie/garden if you cast an eye about you'll be more likely to spot the tools as they try and escape!

[jackie j]

Its the small things I forget to put away at the end of the day, I am trying to put them back in the shed as soon as I finish a job, or at least put them where I can see them but I tend to go off on another job that I see needs doing and come back to the one I started. I think I will put everything in a bucket and put thinks back when I have finished instead of leaving them lying around.

[Two_Sheds]

Its the small things I forget to put away at the end of the day ...at least put them where I can see them but I tend to go off on another job

I've trained myself to throw my tools onto the path while I am still working. That way, I can see them all before I go home, and put them all away.

If they are left in the beds, they are lost ... I deliberately leave my expensive fork in the potato bed, because the foliage completely hides it.

[petal]

I keep rubbish tools in an unlocked shed. if its unlocked, my theory is that thieves presume there is nothing worth nicking! If they do venture in there they won't bother with my rusty old spade!